One of the first ethnographic studies to explore use of social media in the everyday lives of people in Tamil Nadu, Social Media in South India provides an understanding of this subject in a region experiencing rapid transformation. The influx of IT companies over the past decade into what was once a space dominated by agriculture has resulted in a complex juxtaposition between an evolving knowledge economy and the traditions of rural life. While certain class tensions have emerged in response to this juxtaposition, a study of social media in the region suggests that similarities have also transpired, observed most clearly in the blurring of boundaries between work and life for both the old residents and the new.

Venkatraman explores the impact of social media at home, work and school, and analyses the influence of class, caste, age and gender on how, and which, social media platforms are used in different contexts. These factors, he argues, have a significant effect on social media use, suggesting that social media in South India, while seeming to induce societal change, actually remains bound by local traditions and practices.

Praise for Social Media in South India

'[This] fifteen month long ethnographic study gives a detailed description of the Indian social structure based on caste, class and family hierarchies related to age and gender. The book narrates well on how the same is reflected and reaffirmed in their online spaces.'Communication and Culture Review

Shriram Venkatraman has a PhD in Anthropology from UCL and is currently an Assistant Professor at Indraprastha Institute of Information
Technology, Delhi (IIITD). He is a trained professional statistician and, prior to his doctoral studies, held leadership positions at Walmart in the USA.
His research interests include workplace technologies, organisational culture and entrepreneurship.

1. Panchagrami and its complexities

2. The social media landscape: people, their perception
and presence on social media

3. Visual posting: continuing visual spaces

4. Relationships: kinship on social media

5. Bringing home to work: the role of social media
in blurring work–non-work boundaries

6. The wider world: social media and education
in a knowledge economy 169

7. Conclusion: social media and its continuing complexities

Notes

References

Index

'[This] fifteen month long ethnographic study gives a detailed description of the Indian social structure based on caste, class and family hierarchies related to age and gender. The book narrates well on how the same is reflected and reaffirmed in their online spaces.' Communication and Culture Review